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Following A Volunteer For A Year – Cookies & Camping!

By: Kim Dunne, Media Manager

What goes into being a Girl Scout volunteer? What are the hardest parts? What are the joys?

It can be an intimidating time – becoming a volunteer for any organization. Sometimes you’re not quite sure what you’re doing or what you’re getting yourself into. That’s why we put together this monthly blog series. We are going to follow a relatively new volunteer throughout her Girl Scout volunteer experience. That way you can see first hand what it is like to volunteer with the Girl Scouts. So grab your friends, sit back, and experience first hand the experience of a Girl Scout volunteer.

We last checked in with Andrea Decker from Endicott in February when she was preparing her girls for the cookie program. All girls in her troop sold cookies this year and were very proud of their accomplishments.

The girls decided to donate cookies to a local nursing home this year and to use their cookie proceeds to go on a camping trip! With selling cookies comes the opportunity to hold a booth sale. Their first booth sale was held a couple weeks ago at the mall. They ended up with a later time slot (6-8 p.m.) and Andrea says that in coming year she is going to try to get a different location for earlier in the day when cookies first come in. Despite the later time, she says the girls did a great job.

“They sang many of their new cookie songs that we learned for the rally at the booth for customers,” she said. “The customers thought that was adorable and enjoyed listening to them.”

On the list for next year’s booth sales include bags for the cookies for their customers and a banner for the troop made by the girls.

Andrea says the troop sold all of their extra boxes.

“We ordered on the conservative side, knowing what we had in terms of the booth sale and not really wanted to be strapped to sell a bunch of leftovers,” she said.

Her co-leader, Jen, traded cookies with other troops on Facebook and Andrea says that process seemed simple enough and worked for them.

This past weekend the girls enjoyed their very first camping experience! They have worked hard in planning the trip, which was with another Brownie troop at Camp Hoover. The girls made stamps and notebooks for their letterboxing badge, they worked on planning out the hiking badge, the kaper chart and guidelines to follow, a gear list, and even looked at the weather to decide what clothes they should bring. They planned a menu filled with spider dogs, gorp and breakfast wraps.

As Andrea mentioned in February the girls are planning on a service unit project involving a local animal shelter. She is still working on finding a connect with a local shelter. The girls earned their pet badge and realized how much work and money it is to raise a pet, so they are excited about working on this community service project.

“On our agenda upcoming is continuing to work on the service unit project and possibly a few more badges for the spring. We usually end in late May/early June and our girls will be bridging into Juniors and I would like to have them do the candle ceremony for their bridging,” Andrea said.

Stay tuned for another update in May as Andrea tells us how the first camping trip went for the girls and more about the service unit project they want to work on!